PHILLIPSBURG, N.J. (CBS) — A former New Jersey state trooper who led a long line of sports cars on a ‘Death Race’-style convoy down the Garden State Parkway last year has been sentenced to a year of probation.

Just because you have Lamborghini doesn’t mean you’re allowed to drive 120 miles an hour. And just because Nadir Nassry was a sergeant in the New Jersey State Police doesn’t mean he was allowed to turn the parkway into a race track, weaving the caravan of Italian and other exotic rides in and out of traffic.

The 48-year-old Phillipsburg man took a plea deal: guilty of tampering with records, a fourth-degree charge, because he used electrical tape to conceal the license plates on his patrol car for the trip by the sports car club to Atlantic City (see related story).

After a 26-year career in the state police, he’s given up his badge and won’t ever again be able to work as a cop in New Jersey, or in state government (see related story).

The same for 29-year-old Joseph Ventrella, whom prosecutors say assisted in the escort. The seven-year veteran trooper has pleaded not guilty and will steer into a program for first-time offenders.

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Ian Bush is an anchor, reporter, news editor, and technology editor at KYW Newsradio.
Bush joined the airstaff in August 2005 after serving as a desk/production assistant since October 2002. In 2008, he was named one of national radio’s '30 Under...